Basically, I am trying to sort the records within the shapefile based on an attribute(eg: pop) and then add a new field that indicates ranking based on the sort. eg: the record with the highest pop would get a rank value of 1, the next would get a value 2.
I can easily sort and add the field in arcgis but the calculating field so that it is ranked based on the order is something i don't know how it works and hence i am thinking may be a python script would be better.
Best Answer
Assuming you're using ArcGIS 10 (I'd have to check if it works in 9.3) you could use an update cursor, which has a sort attribute.
The A after the sort field name means ascending, which you could replace with D for descending also.